About ten years ago, I was sitting in a coffee shop with graduate student friends. One was black and one was Latina. As we sipped coffee, the two friends started talking about a white guy's research on minority populations. I was quiet, just listening to them, and then they said, "white guys should not be talking about race." They said it was a knowing smile as if people said this quite often.
I was shocked. Did this include open minded types like myself? Why would they want to limit the number of voices who agreed with them? Were they upset that whites were taking over another academic discipline? Or did they think we just get it all wrong?
A couple of months ago, Katha Pollitt pointed out the problems with men talking about feminism. She said that it always comes out a bit icky when men talk about abortion.
My question of the day. Can men talk about feminism?